Vandalizing Canadian Subsidiary of Israeli Arms Company Now a "Hate Crime"

Early morning on October 12, the Geospectrum Technologies building in Peterborough, Ontario was vandalized. Palestine Action Canada has claimed responsibility for the act. Red paint was splashed all over the outside, with words like "ELBIT KILLS," referring to the business' parent company Elbit Systems, written on the outside. Elbit Systems is an Israeli arms manufacturer which has bragged about providing their country's government with 850,000 targets in Gaza between October 7 2023 and the end of 2025. It is the largest supplier of weapons to the Israeli military, with bombs specifically made for "densely populated urban warfare."

The International Court of Justice ruled that there is a "plausible" case that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza in early 2024. As a result, the international community has a responsibility to act to prevent genocide. As Claudia Saba writes in an article for the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs:

As argued by the ICJ in its judgement on the Bosnia v. Serbia case in 2007, responsibility to prevent genocide is “incurred if the State manifestly failed to take all measures to prevent genocide which were within its power” (para 430). In that ruling, the Court found that the Former Republic of Yugoslavia had provided financial support to the Republic of Srpska (para. 338), whose army was responsible for the killing of thousands of Bosniak Muslims. Therefore, states that provide financial support or indeed military support to Israel, are leaving themselves open to litigation on the same grounds.

In this context, the federal government of Canada is likely violating international law and, indeed, is helping perpetuate the genocide of Palestinians.

Despite this, fundamentally crucial fact, the media coverage of Geospectrum Technologies being vandalized is breathless about the threat that Palestine Action poses to Canadians.

Courtney Greenberg, writing in the National Post, described the group as "anti-Israel" multiple times, describes a quote from "a concerned resident" and goes to great lengths to avoid the actual purpose of the action. Despite the rationale being open and plain on the Instagram post by Palestine Action Canada, and even quoted in the piece, the article goes on to explain that the group is a proscribed terrorist group in the United Kingdom without further explanation.

This is true, and that decision has led to mass arrests of "pensioners," elderly retired people who are taken into custody and charged with terrorism offences for things like holding a sign that says "I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action." This has led to an unprecedented explosion in terrorism-related arrests. Again, these are people arrested for holding signs saying they oppose genocide and support non-violent direct action to combat it.

Instead of these patently relevant details, the Post article refers to B'Nai Brith Canada's urging to take similar measures in Canada and the US' sanctions of the group.

Similar tactics can be seen in the article describing the hate crime designation published in kawarthaNOW. While a much more neutral tone is struck in the opening paragraphs, it also fails to mention any of the context provided above. Further to this, the piece cites far-right online outlet Juno News in its reporting. No experts on hate crimes, international law, Palestine Action or genocide are cited in the piece.

Besides a brief mention in the Metroland-owned Peterborough Examiner, the incident has otherwise received little coverage in Canadian legacy news. Internationally, the incident gathered a mention in The New Arab. Overall, coverage has been restricted to the biased pieces dissected here.

Designating the vandalism of a defence software company as a hate crime is a massive escalation against pro-Palestine movements. Law enforcement now sees fit to categorize non-violent petty crimes that target arms manufacturing giants as hateful and discriminatory. Further, the news media that covers the event and the subsequent designation omit important details that are required to understand the story in full. The National Post and kawarthaNOW articles, to different levels, are using what influence they have to lead their readers to accept that this vandalism is controversial because it's inherently tied to the genocide of Palestinians. A strong case could be made that Canada is shirking its obligations to end these crimes against humanity, yet that case is nowhere to be found in the news coverage.

In this acute example, we see how news media adopts the position of the state, whether through overt or unconscious framing, to launder reality.